November 25

Today was a great day and a definite learning experience! Today was Kyle's first day back to work. After being together for the past 3 1/2 weeks it was a definite change! Mandy and Randie both survived the day but boy was she excited to see her dad. Today the home health nurse also came over to make sure that both Randie and Mandy are doing well. Both passed with flying colors! Randie is now weighing in at 7 pounds even and her lungs still

sound awesome! She is eating really well so that is good a thing and we all got some sleep last night since she only got up every 3 hours instead of every 2.

Tonight we had some great visitors. Our cousins Keith, Kendra, and their little one came to visit us and brought us supper. We had an awesome meal and got to catch up on some stuff. There little one is almost 3 months old so it was fun to see her again and how much she has changed. After our visitors left, we gave Randie a bath. It was her first bath at home and it was fun. Took a little effort but I think we are finally figuring it all out!

Would love to send  a big shout out to our nephew Gage. Yesterday was his birthday and we were unable to attend but we hope that he had an awesome day and great birthday!

Cuddling with mom

Dad got some cuddles too!

Kyle and Randie and Keith and Ariah

Kadence got to hold her

Then it was Mikayla's turn

Puma think this is harder work than chasing the racquet ball all day

Just waiting for dad to come home from work!

 

Cutest little girl in the world

Just getting a bath

Not sure what to think about all this!

Puma was so interested in her!

Just a little after bath hair! It is so long when we can actually get it to lay down!

Puma already looking after Randie

 

Her stocking came into today! Bring on Christmas!

 

 

 

November 23 and November 24

These past two days have been wonderful! We have had so many wonderful visitors. Things have been great...even though we are getting very little sleep. This little girl is enjoying getting up every 2-3 hours and eating. She eats extremely well and I do not think that we will have to worry about her not gaining weight! The oxygen is getting easier to work around which is really nice! We head back over Wednesday for an appointment! Today her two cousins Mikayla and Kadence came over and got to hold her. It was pretty precious to see the girls with her and cannot wait for her to meet the rest of her cousins.

Yesterday Kyle's grandpa Gene and Aunt Donna stopped by. They got to meet little Miss Randie. It was pretty special. Not sure if many people know but Randie has a pretty special name. Not only is she named after Mandy's dad Randy but her middle name was Kyle's grandma Bonnie Brice's middle name. It is such a special name for such a special little girl.

Speaking of her cousins, if everyone could please pray for her cousin Branson. Branson was having some issues breathing last night and Katie took him down to the ER and they found out that he has RSV. This is definitely a nasty virus that no child should ever have to go through. He is on treatments but it is still exhausting to his body and the whole family! Please pray that he gets well soon so that he can meet his cousin and we can see his family! Poor little guy!

This was her favorite position to nap.

The day they took the feeding tube out and the oxygen off!! She looked like a whole new baby! Even though the oxygen is back on, it is still better than all those cords!

Bright eyed beauty!

Just napping on the pillow!

Beautiful baby

 

Ready to head home! Passed her carseat test so we are good to go!

This shows the beautiful blanket that the nurse had picked out for her! They all love her so so much!

Our take home outfit. We had another outfit picked out but with the oxygen and it being cold outside this ended up being the perfect fit!

Everything was decorated when we got home!

A beautiful cake her cousin made her!

Just kicking it in the bassinet. Her grandpa Rick built this bassinet for all his grandkids! So so special!

Grandma Donna came to visit and brought supper. This was the first time Donna was able to hold her so this so special!

This is how Puma felt about our first night home! She was lacking in the sleep department too :)

2nd day at home! Sleeping like a champ

Randie's Great grandpa Darrel and Great grandma Janice came to visit and brought lunch. Pretty sure grandma Janice didn't want to put her down! Ever!

Aunt Barb came to visit

Getting all sorts of loves from Grandma

Grandma Lori stopped by and finally got to hold her!

Puma is still not sure about all of this the third day home!

Enjoying our third day home!

Barb and Brody came to visit! He finally got to meet the girl with all the black hair!

 

Nani DeeDee stopped by too!

Enjoying her first husker game!

 

We have a husker onesie and with the oxygen it is just easier to put her in sleepers so we got out her husker blanket for this week! One proud papa there!!

 

 

 

 

November 20-22

Sorry that it has taken so long for an update. The past few days have kind of been a whirlwind and while we were in the hospital we could not get on the blog (their internet blocked the site). Here is a recap of the last few days!

November 20--We got word this morning that we are headed to step down today! We ran back to the hotel and got everything packed up and loaded in the blazer! Who knew you could accumulate so much crap in 3 weeks. We had to meet with the oxygen tech before we could go to step down and after an entire day, they finally showed up. About 6 at night, we put our stuff in a hospital room and they brought Randie into our room. What an amazing feeling to finally all be together as a family!

November 21--Well last night went really well. She was up every 3-4 hours to eat and went back to bed. Of course we couldn't sleep so we gave her a bath again just to make sure we knew what we were doing. We got word this morning that we are headed HOME today! Even though its snowing and cold outside, we are headed home! Dr. Guerue came in and checked her out and said she looked great! We have to go back next Wednesday for a follow-up appointment! There will be a home health nurse that comes over and checks her oxygen and weight gain as well! We got discharged and then took Randie to the hotel to meet the amazing staff there. After saying hello, we hit the road! Last night they gave Randie  the carseat test one more time and she passed with flying colors! Of course this didn't stop Mandy from checking her every 10 minutes to make sure she was breathing on the way home! We got home and slowly settled down! It is so so nice to be home and start this amazing journey!

November 22--Well last night was our first night home! Rick and Donna came over with the dog and supper about 6:30. We were so excited to see Puma! We ate and Donna got to hold Randie for the first time!! It was a lot of fun to watch all the interactions! We laid Randie on the floor to let Puma get to know her and sure enough, Puma just wanted to lick her to death. She even jumped up while Kyle was feeding her last night and licked her hair! Puma, however, didn't quite know what to think when Randie would cry and Puma looked just as exhausted as we did this morning! Randie did well but she was up every 2-3 hours to sleep and was bright eyed most of the night. There was just too many new things to sleep! Things went well all day!  She got to meet some wonderful people! Grandma Janice and Grandpa Darrel came up and brought soup! Grandma was so excited to get to see Randie and hold her as well! We had a great afternoon spent with them. Barb stopped over at lunch and got to hold miss Randie as well! Later this afternoon Lori came up and got to hold her for the first time! Our good friends Amanda and Aaron Willey stopped over as well. Aaron had already been there once this morning when he came over and got us all set up on oxygen for the house. We have a big tank in the living room with a longer hose which has been really nice instead of having to pick up the little bottle and take it everywhere with us. They have a little one due in February so it was fun to know that we would have little ones so close in age! And she loved Aaron. She seriously snuggled with him for almost an hour. It was a great evening spent with some great people! We have been taking pictures and we try and get those uploaded later today or tomorrow! It has been quite busy getting our house put together and laundry done!! We are so so happy to be home! We appreciate everything from everyone so much!! Love to you all!!

November 19

Well today was a tough day. They always told us that she would call the shots and she sure has! We arrived this morning to find her off her oxygen and feeding tube out. We were so excited. She statted so well for us while we were there and fed her at 10:00 this morning. When we arrived back for the 1:00 feeding, the oxygen was back on. Now they can send us home on oxygen so this was not that big of a deal...just one more cord will have to work around for a while. She ate really well all day taking more than 60cc at most of her feedings! Tonight however was another hurdle we didn't quite make it over. They have to do a test with them sitting in her car seat for the amount of time that it takes to get home without dropping any of her vitals. She sat in her car seat for about a total of 10 minutes and her oxygen plummeted. We were so disappointed to hear this but the nurses reassured us that this too will not keep us here. Instead she may have to go home in a car bed which is just a car seat that lays flat. We are actually thinking this may be easier anyways with her on oxygen as the nasal cannula is hard to keep on her head! The bad thing is that hopefully the hospital has one we can use or else we are going go have to find one. We should know more in the morning after the doctor is in. Hoping to be in step down in the next few days as she is still eating like a champ and gaining weight. These little hurdles with the oxygen and car seat are not going to hold us back! We are so ready to be home but so going to miss all the wonderful people we have met over here!

November 18

Wow! What a day! We arrived this morning to find that she had already scarfed down her first feeding and boy was she ready for her second. The doctor came in and decided to bump her feedings to full feedings with the bottle only! This was huge! This is what we have been waiting for! Randie did AWESOME! She scarfed all of her bottles in 15 minutes or less except one but it only took 20. She is loving eating and she is always ready to eat when we arrive! Tonight they upped her last feed to 65 and she ate all that in less than 8 minutes so the nurse said that at the 1 o clock feeding, she is going to try to feed her 70. She still only has to eat 60cc to have a full feeding so the rest is just to make sure she is not too hungry! They also decided to start weaning her oxygen. She is down to .025 right now and the nurse is hoping to get her lower tonight! She is really making some great head way!

This is her favorite position for napping! Arms up, kick back relaxed!

Bright eyed after a feeding

The best way to "hold" her. She loves just hanging out on the pillow, stretched out! She does great!